During the 16th century before the piano was invented, clavichord and harpsichords were the most common instruments in homes. These instruments were similar to the piano but because of the design of the “action” or playing mechanism, lacked dynamic control.
Because a more dynamic instrument was demanded, the piano was invented around 1700. The first pianos sounded quite different than they do today because they were made much smaller with wooden frames instead of the large cast-iron plates of today.
The piano was made popular because of its ability to change the tone and volume of the notes by simply playing softer or harder on the keyboard. Before the piano you could not do this with the existing keyboard instruments as they used a plucking action rather than felt hammers that strike the string.
The piano quickly became the popular choice for large concerts and we still see this today with large 9-foot concert grands taking up the stage.
The first pianos were called “Square pianos” but are rectangular in shape. These square pianos started off with a much softer tone than today’s modern instruments.
As the need for larger and brighter instruments became an issue, the cast iron plate was invented in around 1845.
The plate is the main supporting structure of a piano weighing about 200 pounds. It supports a round 40000 pounds of string tension when the piano is at standard pitch. The invention of the plate allowed for greater string tension to be placed on the instrument allowing for a louder and more dynamic piano.
Around 1880 the square pianos were replaced by the grands and large uprights we commonly see today. But why the need for a professional piano tuner?
EQUAL TEMPERAMENT.
Before the piano was invented, most musicians tuned their own instruments. Having a need for someone to tune your harpsichord was like a professional violin player needing someone to tune his violin.
Most instruments only had one string per note and were tuned by the player. It was when equal temperament started to become the primary temperament for music in about 1800 that things became more difficult for the average player.
Piano manufactures began to realize tuning was becoming a problem and began to employ their own piano tuners. They can be seen in factories as early as 1800.
Equal temperament is used on pianos, and all other stringed instruments that have frets or fixed pitches. Guitars are fretted with a formulated distance between the frets to allow for equal temperament tuning.
Equal temperament consists of slightly out of tune intervals from their pure point. The interval of a forth is always tuned “wide” or sharp of its pure point, while a fifth is always tuned “narrow” or flat of its pure point. Major thirds are tuned wide.
Slightly detuning the intervals causes a slow wave or “beat” to occur. These range from 1 beat every half second in the fourths to 1 beat a second in the fifths.
The thirds range from about 7 beats a second on the low end of the temperament, to about 14 beats a second on the high end. I say about because every instrument is slightly different in design thus not all intervals can be precisely tuned to a fixed beat per second ratio.
Every piano must be tuned slightly different requiring different beat rate calculations to work properly. If you were to take a 9-foot grand and use the pitches on that piano to tune to a smaller upright, the upright would sound extremely out of tune.
The intervals of equal temperament must be tuned in this way to allow for the playing in all 12 keys without each key having its own distinct sound or “colour”.
If you have a good musical ear and were to try to tune a third on a piano without the understanding of equal temperament, you would tune that third pure, meaning no beats in the interval. Your ear wants to hear that third as a pure third with no beats.
However, it is impossible to tune a third pure and have a useable equal temperament tuning. If this is done, the key of C may sound extremely good while the key of F sounds extremely bad.
OTHER TEMPERAMENT’S IN MUSIC.
Much debate has gone on about equal temperament through the years with some people saying that it has ruined harmony and lacks distinction from key to key.
There is probably a lot of truth to this statement as composers such as Beethoven would not have heard their music the same as we do today. Many pianos of Beethoven’s time were tuned in such a way to give different colours to each key. Because of these tonal difference’s composers had many reasons to change keys during the music.
These temperaments such as “mean tone” allow for all 12 keys to have a different colour. For example, C major might have a bright and lively sound whereas E major might have a darker sound.
Some concert pianists will request for the piano to be tuned with these different temperaments in mind so that they can take advantage of their different sounds. This is hard to explain without hearing it, but I believe that some very musical possibilities exist with other temperaments. Maybe I will do a podcast demonstrating the different temperaments and how they are tuned.
TUNING HAMMER TECHNIQUE AND STABILIZING TUNING PINS.
Another need for the professional piano tuner is the “setting and stabilizing” of tuning pins. The piano has around 220-240 strings with each string holding around 160 pounds of tension. This brings the total tension of your piano to 18-20 tons!
The strings are made of steel and strung extremely tight so that they will produce a tone when the hammer strikes them. To turn a single string with a tuning hammer it takes about 100 PPI or (pounds per inch.)
The goal of a good tuner is always to make as small of a movement as possible to adjust the pitch of the note up or down. Learning to make fewer and smaller movements while exerting enough force to move and stabilize the pin is what we call hammer technique. Too much excess movement will cause the note to be unstable.
A tuner must learn to feel the way the tuning pin reacts and will know if it is stable or not by feeling it through the tuning hammer. The better quality the tuning hammer, the better the tuner can feel the pin.
It is this process that takes a very long time for a tuner to develop. Therefore, it is always advised that you have your piano tuned by a professional tuner unless you are willing to put the time in to learn how to do it correctly!
SHOULD I TRY AND TUNE MY OWN PIANO?
Many musicians have often thought about trying to tune their own pianos. Over the years many books and videos have been published on the subject.
Before I had a formal education in piano tuning and rebuilding, I had often thought about tuning my own piano. Knowing what I know now I am glad I never tried it. It would have ended up being an extremely frustrating experience with the reward of an even worse sounding piano.
This is not to say that an individual with proper teaching materials, dedication, patience, and time to put what they learn in to practice can’t tune their own piano. But it will not come over night and a good tuner is always trying to improve their tunings.
It generally takes about a year to really learn how to tune one properly and to get your time down to a manageable level. The first piano I did a full tuning on took me no less than 6 hours and it was not a very good tuning.
If you are going to try and learn to tune your own piano do it for the enjoyment of it not because you think you will save money. Truthfully a good set of tools will cost you far more than a tuning would.
A good tuning hammer alone is $150-350. This does not include felts for muting, rubber mutes, tuning forks, and other tools so that you will be able to do repairs on the action.
Forget those “tuning hammers” that you see on Amazon for $30. They are trash and not good for anything else other than stringing work or firewood. The tips on those hammers do not fit the tuning pins properly either.
If you go the rout of tuning yourself, the first thing I would recommend is find a piano that you can use for practicing tuning so that you will not ruin the tuning of your main piano. If there is enough interest, I might put together a course on how to tune your own piano. Contact me if this is something that you would be interested in.
.jpg)
